As PTSD cases surge, Army overhauling mental health services - Glens Falls Post-Star
Commentary: Why so many teachers quit, and how to fix that Every year, thousands of young and enthusiastic teachers all over the country start their first day of work. Teacher attrition is especially high in poor, urban schools, where on average about a fifth of the entire faculty leaves annually — that’s roughly 50 percent higher than the rate in more affluent schools. It’s also cutting back the use of private psychiatric hospitals while expanding intensive mental health programs at military facilities like Madigan Army Medical Center. The reforms come at a time when the Army, despite a dramatic reduction in troops headed to a war zone, still faces serious challenges trying to reach and treat soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health conditions. At JBLM, diagnoses of PTSD over the past three years have been at the highest level since the peak of the Iraq War in 2008. Army-wide, patient contacts with mental health personnel reached 2 million last year, more than double the numbers six... Yet, despite expanded outreach, the Army’s latest PTSD training document — provided to medical staff in December — shows that more than half the soldiers with PTSD. Source: poststar.com
